Last Resort
by COOKIECHEESEMAN
Summary: FE4. "If it worked, she could have her husband back. They could live a happy life again." Ishtar takes a huge risk that could either save her husband or completely destroy him. A somewhat dark IshtarxJulius fic that actually ends happily for the two of them.


Author's Notes

What? This isn't the next chapter of A Glimmer of Hope?! I'll explain more at the end of the story! Please don't guest review!

For those who don't know, Loptyr is simply an interchangeable name with Loptutousu, the dark god of FE4 and 5. And the names used in this story are the names used in the translation of FE4 I played.

Spoilers ahead! Obviously, I'm also kind of destroying canon in a lot of ways here, but let's just ignore that, shall we? The story's somewhat dark, but it does end happily...

* * *

Loptutousu.

The tome that caused a continental war.

The tome that corrupted her husband.

The tome that almost destroyed their marriage...

* * *

The Last Resort

When Ishtar first met Julius, she knew what she was getting into. She knew he was already in the process of being completely taken over by Loptyr, as did he. Despite these facts, though, Julius and Ishtar fell in love and eventually married in secret...

However, their happiness was not meant to be from the start.

Ishtar knew that.

And yet, she still willingly gave him her figurative heart, as she blindly hoped that perhaps Julius' condition could be reversed, or that their love for each other could stave off Loptutousu's influence.

It couldn't.

In fact, despite Ishtar's best efforts to be caring and kind, it became increasingly apparent that eventually her husband would no longer be Julius of Barhara, but would eventually become the vessel of the dark god, Loptutousu. She tried to not let it bother her, but... it was difficult. The man she vowed to love and cherish was no longer the man she married.

And it got worse.

Julius would constantly switch between his normal self and his alternate self, and the few opportunities he had as his normal self were decreasing in number and duration by the day. And yet, she still tried to make it work, and Julius, during the few times he was his normal self, would do the same, even though they both knew it was hopeless.

Nevertheless, Ishtar's only saving grace of relief during this time period was founded in how much trust the two lovers had in each other. Even when she was with Loptyr and not Julius, she knew her husband so well that she could tell what Julius was thinking just by looking at his eyes. Many times, Loptutousu would be telling her one thing, but when she examined his eyes, she could see Julius telling her something completely different.

She found this out the hard way when she was slapped in the face for the first time.

Her husband would never do that to her.

But Loptyr would.

"You wish for me to stop the child hunts?" Loptutousu had said, anger emanating from his very essence. "Say that again, and you'll _wish_ it was just a slap in the face you were getting when I'm through with you..."

But when she looked into her husband's eyes, she could see the horrible truth of just how little Julius could do when he was being corrupted by Loptyr.

'_Ishtar... what have I done?' _Julius' eyes had told her. _'I would never hurt you... what sort of monster am I becoming?'_

Ishtar never blamed Julius for anything that he did. It wasn't his fault that he was given the Loptutousu tome without him knowing; the very tome that would awaken the dark power inside him. By the time he knew what he had in his possession, it was too late, and the process of irreversible corruption had begun...

'_Please... get away from me... I can't stand to see you in pain...'_

Ishtar simply nodded in response, and seemingly satisfied, Loptyr did not press the matter further.

That night, however, was a wake-up call for Ishtar; she had to do something, and soon.

But what _could_ she do?

* * *

She brooded over the matter in her bed in one of the spare bedrooms of Barhara castle; Loptyr had long forbidden any sort of intimacy between the two of them until the time was right to procreate the next perfect heir of Loptutousu, which could only occur after Julius was fully taken over by Loptyr, so they slept in separate rooms.

It has been literally almost a year since they last held hands, kissed, or did anything remotely romantic. It has been even longer since they copulated, and at this point, Ishtar now longed for her husband's touch. Not in a lustful way; well, perhaps a small part of her still harboured some carnal desires; but just to be held, wanted, loved. Loptutousu had once said that the only reason he had feelings for her was from Julius, but one day, even that would eventually disappear.

And that would almost be a fate worse than death.

So again, what could she do about it?

Ishtar had a few choices. One, don't do anything and just let the situation worsen until she couldn't handle it anymore. Two, run away and join the Liberation army that was slowly pushing their way towards them so that they could take down her husband for starting the war in the first place.

Or three, take a huge risk and hope for the best. A last resort, so to speak; something she had thought about doing many times before, but never followed through with because it could very well kill Julius.

However, at this point, she didn't think she _had_ a choice anymore.

If it worked, she could have her husband back. They could live a happy life again.

If it didn't work... at the very least, her husband could die in peace, knowing at least that he wouldn't be hurting his wife anymore...

* * *

Ishtar stared at the black tome in her hands; Loptutousu. The book that ruined everything in Julius' life. If she could destroy this cursed tome...

She took a deep breath as she prepared to throw the book into the burning fireplace...

"DON'T YOU DARE!"

Against her better judgement, Ishtar turned around to see Julius; no, Loptyr; bolt toward her from the other room. She had never seen someone look so angry before. "Put that back! You'll kill your beloved husband if you do that!"

The saddening words almost made Ishtar reconsider her actions, but one look into her husband's eyes told her exactly what she needed to do.

'_I'd rather die than watch you suffer because of me...'_

That was all she needed to see.

"Julius... I love you..." she whispered to herself, and with tears in her eyes, she tossed the tome into the burning fire with a bitter-sweet smile on her face.

* * *

"GAHHHHHH!"

It was a never-ending scream, and Ishtar could only sob as she watched her husband writhe in pain and agony on the floor only inches away from her feet. Eventually, though, minutes later, (although to Ishtar it felt like hours) the scream died down and Julius collapsed onto the floor on his back. Ishtar then immediately kneeled to her husband's side and held him in her arms to look at his face.

It was completely lifeless.

"No... _nooooooooooooo!_"

Ishtar couldn't hold back the tears, and she cried into her husband's chest in sadness. She knew it was a big gamble to do what she did, which was why it was a last resort, but it still didn't prepare her for the consequences.

She effectively killed her husband. Knowingly. _Willingly_.

And that made it so much harder to bear.

"I'm sorry... I'm so, so sorry..." she constantly sobbed as she gripped Julius' cape in her hands to pull her husband closer to her. It had been her first anniversary gift she gave to him, and now, she wrapped it around the two of them to hold them close together for the final time.

She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "I will... always love you..."

...

...

...

Only Ishtar's sobs could be heard alongside the fireplace as it slowly crackled...

...

...

Until...

...

"...Ishtar?"

Ishtar's head bolted upright at the voice.

Could it be...

"...please... stop... crying..."

It was! Julius was alive! When Ishtar looked down and saw her husband; completely freed from the being that had possessed him; smiling up at her, she broke down even further and began bawling in happiness. She couldn't believe the plan worked; if she had known, she would have done it a long time ago.

In any case, she had her husband back now, and that's all that mattered to her.

"Promise me... that you'll never leave me again..." Ishtar mumbled as she kissed Julius' lips for the first time in a long, long time...

* * *

EPILOGUE

When the Liberation army stormed Barhara castle and found the two lovers cuddled under a blanket and sleeping in each other's arms beside the fireplace, they were dumbfounded about what to do next. After they awkwardly woke up the content couple, Ishtar begged them not to kill her or Julius, explaining to them about how Julius was not acting by his own free will and how the real source of the problem was now legitimately destroyed. To prove it, they could still see the cursed tome burning away in the fireplace.

Still, the populace demanded justice for everything that happened, so the "official" story told to the public was that Julius and Ishtar were both defeated and slain in battle. In reality, however, Ishtar and Julius were quietly relocated to a secret location so they could live together in safety and peace, and yet could still be watched just in case they had withheld information the day they were found, even though they hadn't.

Regardless, they lived out the rest of their days in happiness, and even though some of their many children carried the blood of Loptutousu in their veins, it wouldn't ever be a problem for the world again thanks to Ishtar's actions that day...

THE END

* * *

Author's Notes

Why couldn't this have happened in the actual game?!

I've hit severe writer's block concerning A Glimmer of Hope. I've barely written any of the chapter, and for some reason, this interesting idea popped into my head, so I wrote this instead. In one of the interviews about FE4, it was mentioned that a possible idea was to have Julius reverted back to normal by the love of his sister, Julia. Sadly, that was scrapped, obviously. Here's an actual happy ending for Julius and Ishtar!

Julius' REAL personality is never shown or explained in any way in FE4 and 5; the only concrete fact we know about him is that he genuinely loves Ishtar, (SO SWEET) so I wanted to paint him as much kinder and gentler than he's portrayed in the game. Alvis is not overly charismatic or hotheaded or temperamental, (for the most part) and Deirdre is the kindest soul ever. Clearly, these personality traits should rub off onto their children! On the other hand, I think I made the possessed Julius much colder and angrier than he's portrayed in the game as well, but I felt it helped add to Ishtar's motivation and made a bigger contrast with his normal personality.

In a perfect world, every story of mine would be written in present tense. For some reason I find present tense to be much easier to write. However, once in a while, I find past tense would convey the story better. The thing is, it seems that I find it much harder to actually flesh out situations as far as details and setting and stuff is concerned, which is unfortunate. Hopefully it wasn't a big issue.

Hopefully, now that I've written this, I can get my next A Glimmer of Hope chapter out! I hope you guys enjoyed this story! From what I've seen, every story on this site conveying these two always ends tragically, or at the very least it's implied. I felt I needed to change that!


End file.
